July 07, 2008

Blueberry Gelato

Directions:In a medium saucepan bring the blueberries, water and sugar to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer until the blueberries are easily mashed and the sugar is fully dissolved. Mash with a potato masher until fairly smooth. You can either strain (really mashing the pulp with the back of spoon to get all of the guts out) or leave the skins in. Stir in the lime juice and zest. Allow to cool to room temperature then stir in the milk. Refrigerate overnight or until very cold then pour into a ice cream or gelato maker and churn as per the machine's directions. Store in an air-tight, freezer-safe container.

My thoughts:

Homemade gelato has a lot of things going for it. It is infinitely adaptable, lower in fat than ice cream, doesn't use eggs (no tempering or beating to a ribbon needed!)and requires very little over-the-stove time, a major plus when living in a hot and humid place like Baltimore in July. This particular gelato is especially fun to make, the color is dramatic (if a bit bilious in the pre-churned state) and the blueberry flavor remains true and fresh. I always feel a little guilty doing anything with blueberries (so expensive! so already perfect!) beyond simply popping them in my mouth. Gelato, like the blueberry-ginger ice box pie makes the most of their flavor with a minimal amount of fuss.

That's funny, I feel guilty when we devour our blueberries straight from the box and never make anything special with them. This looks amazing though, will keep it in mind if we ever keep berries around long enough!

Rachel,Inspired by your Blueberry gelato post, I made it yesterday. Used 2 cups of frozen blueberries (frozen by me, not by some corporate shill), which I think made for a faster base - oddly enough - they seemed to release more juices faster than when cooking down fresh blueberries. Decided that I didn't want to deal with skins so I put it through a food mill on the finest disk and got 1 c. of puree/liquid. Now my husband won't leave me alone and wants me to reproduce this concoction with any and every fruit possible. I blame you (thankfully). It's amazing!